Currently, a hybrid vehicle and an electric vehicle which are driven by the rotational drive force of a motor have been used for the reduction in environmental burdens. These types of automobile, i.e. a hybrid vehicle and an electric vehicle and such driven by the rotational drive force of a motor, are mounted with power source devices such as a battery, an inverter, a motor and a generator to which drive voltage is applied. Due to the large voltage value of the electric current flowing between these power source devices, a thick cable which is thicker than an electric wire of a wire harness used for transmitting signal or distributing power to the respective electric equipments is used to connect the above-described power source devices to each other. Conventionally, various terminal connection structures (refer to Patent Literature 1, for example) have been used to connect these thick cables to the above-described power source devices.
A terminal connection structure shown in Patent Literature 1 includes a plurality of strip-shaped terminal fixtures, an insulating housing arranged to receive the terminal fixtures, and a shield shell arranged to cover the outside of the housing and fixed on a case of the power source device and such. The terminal fixture is made of a thick metal plate and is connected to the above-described power source device. The terminal fixture is placed onto another terminal fixture attached to an end of the cable and sandwiched by a bolt and a nut to be connected to the another terminal fixture. The housing is arranged such that the plurality of terminal fixtures lies in the same plane with respect to each other to maintain a lateral distance between the plurality of terminal fixtures as well as to facilitate the engagement of the bolt and the nut. The housing is provided on an outer periphery of the above-described power source device.
The above-described terminal connection structure is arranged to connect the cable with the power source device by threadably engaging the bolt with the nut together so as to sandwich the terminal fixtures overlapped each other between the bolt and the nut. However, the conventional terminal connection structure described above has a drawback that, since the housing is arranged such that the plurality of terminal fixtures lie in the same plane with respect to each other, the width of the housing becomes large, increasing the size of the housing. Obviously, the above-mentioned terminal block is required to be connected with the terminal at the end of the cable such that the electric resistance between the terminal block and the terminal of the cable is less than the desired resistance value. Therefore, the applicant of the present invention has proposed a terminal connection structure 100 (shown in FIG. 13) which is downsized and which can connect terminal fixtures together in a reliable manner.
The terminal connection structure 100 shown in FIG. 13 includes a first terminal fixture 102 connected to a coil 101 of a motor, a second terminal fixture 103 connected to an inverter, and a clip terminal 104. The first terminal fixture 102 and the second terminal fixture 103 are provided with electric-contact portions 105, 106 formed respectively into a strip-like shape to be overlapped each other. The clip terminal 104 includes a pair of contact pieces arranged to sandwich the electric-contact portions 105, 106 overlapped each other and a biasing joint portion formed continuously from the pair of contact pieces and arranged to bias the pair of contact pieces sandwiching the electric-contact portions 105, 106 towards each other. The clip terminal 104 is arranged to move closer to these electric-contact portions 105, 106 along a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the electric-contact portions 105, 106 overlapped each other to sandwich the electric-contact portions 105, 106 overlapped each other between the pair of contact pieces.
The terminal connection structure 100 shown in FIG. 13 is arranged to connect the electric-contact portions 105, 106 together by moving the clip terminal 104 towards the electric-contact portions 105, 106 along a direction perpendicular to (i.e. intersecting) the longitudinal direction of the electric-contact portions 105, 106 of the first and the second terminal fixtures 102, 103 overlapped each other, followed by sandwiching the electric-contact portions 105, 106 between the pair of contact pieces of the clip terminal 104. Thus, even if the electric-contact portions 105, 106 of the first and the second terminal fixtures 102, 103 are arranged in parallel at an interval between each other, the electric-contact portions 105, 106 can be connected to each other in a reliable manner. Thus, by positioning the electric-contact portions 105, 106 of the first and the second terminal fixtures 102, 103 in parallel at an interval between each other, the width of the terminal connection structure 100 can be decreased compared to the case in which the electric-contact portions 105, 106 of the first and the second terminal fixtures 102, 103 are arranged to lie in the same plane. Thus, the terminal connection structure 100 can be downsized.
Furthermore, since the clip terminal 104 includes the pair of contact pieces and the biasing joint portion arranged to bias the pair of contact pieces toward each other, the clip terminal 104 sandwiches the electric-contact portions 105, 106 overlapped each other between the pair of contact pieces, thereby electrically-connecting the first terminal fixture 102 and the second terminal fixture 103 to each other in a reliable manner. Thus, the terminal fixtures 102, 103 can be connected to each other in a reliable manner.